HMH-462 off for the Siagon Embassy

I believe it was the USS Okinawa. -Submitted by: Frank D Bermudez [FrankDBermudez@aol.com] 2007-10-19

This looks like a state side shot. white lettering and crewchief has a white helmet???? -Submitted by: gary kolbenstetter [gkolbnstr@live.com] 2008-10-22

YES IT WAS THE USS OKINAWA, I WAS WITH THE SQUADRON AT THE TIME. LONG HOURS AND NO SLEEP. -Submitted by: BOB GABELEIN [BOB.GABELEIN@WHIDBEYTEL.COM] 2009-10-01

I was a Crew CHief with HMH-462 in 1975 during Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind operations. We were on the Okinawa LPH-3 at this time and the only time we had door guns mounted was during the operations and during gun training before the missions. So the photo looks accurate to me. I also seem to remember the white Marines and squadron letters being painted over and repainted in dark green for the actual missions; can anyone second that ? Tom -Submitted by: Tom Benton [tom.benton@arrisi.com] 2010-01-31

I believe that this shot was from the evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on April 12, 2005, from the flight deck of the U.S.S. Okinawa. I think that this is so because by April 30, the date of the evacuation of Saigon, the numbers and the word MARINES on our birds were repainted in tactical modex colors, flat black over flat green. The birds were armed for the Phom Penh op. I was a AH-1J crew chief for YF-22, detached from HMA-369 to HMH-462 for both Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind. -Submitted by: Nat Kidder [Natkidder@gmail.com] 2010-04-23

It is a 53 from HMH462 aboard the Oki Boat. I was in the metalshop at this time and I would have been the one to paint the numbers over... I do not remember doing this. As far as I know and from pics I have, we did NOT paint them over. Maybe 463 on the Hancock did theirs, but we didn't. Birdman -Submitted by: Brian Kellogg [bphawk1@hotmail.com] 2010-07-27